[Tidbits] The Pearls of Hedwig Kiesler

The Pearls of Hedwig Kiesler

She was many things … and for those of you who remember the heyday
of Hollywood … she was easily the most beautiful actress of her
time. No one … but no one … surpassed her for sheer beauty. She
was known for four things. The first … of course … was her
incredible looks. The second … her absolute lack of talent for
picking good films. If you can believe it … she rejected the role
Ingrid Bergman took in Casablanca. Her third … her very specific
taste in jewelry. And her fourth … her fourth … well … I’m
saving that for the end because it’s going to knock all of your
collective socks off. Let me just add one little thing. For those of
you tempted to go to the end of this thing and peek because you
haven’t the patience to wait … I have planted an Internet device
on this page that is set to detonate the stench of a thousand skunks
into the nostrils of those who refuse to remain linear and read
straight through. Dare … if you dare … to skip ahead. Her stage
name–of course–will also be revealed later.

Born in Vienna … she was discovered by Louis B. Mayer in London.
He was at first reluctant to hire her because she had appeared nude
in a film. He was clearly a stodgy old soul. But he relented … and
in 1938 she starred in a movie entitled Algiers with Charles Boyer
who uttered the famous words: “Come with me to the Casbah.” And from
that point on she systematically neglected to pick good films. It
was in this aspect that she showed one of her greatest abilities.
Parenthetically … she did play in one more super-successful film
with Victor Mature entitled: Samson and Delilah.

When it came to jewelry … she wore only one thing: Pearls. She had
pearl button earrings and pearl drop earrings and pearl rings and
pearl necklaces. I do not have–alas–pictures of her pearl jewelry.
Instead … I will show you Tyler Adam pearls because–after all–
this is about jewelry and so I will show you the type of jewelry our
dark haired Hedwig Kiesler might have liked were she around to chat
with me today.

Her name-- of course–was Hedy Lamarr … and I am now going to tell
you the rest of the story–to borrow a phrase from the great one.
One might think that our lover of pearls … who was unable to pick
a good script to save her life … one might think she was a dunce.
Nay nay sweet boids of yute. She was brighter than bright. She was
an inventor. Her invention-- whose intended purpose was the guiding
of torpedoes by radio signal–was never used as it was intended to
be used. However … it is used today as the basis of satellite
communications … not the least popular use being that of the
cellular phone. You folks have heard of cellular phones … have
you not? The US Patent Number–for those of you who would like to
check this out–was granted in August, 1942. It’s 2,292,387.

For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at www.tyler-adam.com where you will
scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says
Tidbits…and then click on the link that says: Pearls … where you
will see a graphic of some of our strands that might … were I to
have lived back then when … have adorned the neck of our actress.

And there ya have it.
That’s it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark

-- http://www.tyler-adam.com --